Manufacturing industries will lead investment in the internet of things, according to the analysts at IDC, followed by transportation and utilities. Cross-Industry IoT investments in technologies such as connected vehicles and smart buildings are projected to total $86 billion this year, second only to investments by manufacturers.
Manufacturers are expected to spend $183 billion on IoT technologies this year, with more than $100 billion of that amount going to manufacturing operations. Much of this spending targets predictive maintenance, which is considered the number one IoT use case for manufacturing.
Many factories already connect their equipment to internal networks that control the equipment. But often these are not IP networks, meaning that these machines can’t talk to servers that use internet protocols.
Bringing operational networks and informational networks together could help many manufacturing companies realize the true potential of the IoT. National Instruments is leading a group of 24 partner companies in a project aimed at creating “time-sensitive” networks which would merge operations control and data analysis.
Jamie Smith, National Instruments director of business and technology, said that right now companies have to “go back in time” to get information about how their connected equipment is performing. He said the convergence of operations networks and IT networks will enable real-time equipment monitoring and control.
